Position Vacancy

SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND

Project Manager- Lebanon

Beirut, Lebanon

Job Announcement

About Search for Common Ground

Search for Common Ground (Search) is a non-governmental organization working to transform the way societies
deal with conflicts. We have over 37 years of experience in peacebuilding and are based in 53 local offices
worldwide. We strive to build sustainable peace for generations to come by working with all sides of a conflict,
providing the tools needed to work together, and finding constructive solutions. While conflict is inevitable,
violence is not! Our mission is to transform the way the world deals with conflict, away from adversarial
approaches and toward cooperative solutions. Instead of tearing down an existing world, we focus on
constructing a new one. We shift the everyday interactions between hostile groups of people, so they can work
together to build up their community, choosing joint problem-solving over violent means. We first worked in
Lebanon in 1996, and we opened up our office in Beirut in 2008. Since then, our activities and capacities have
grown significantly. We rely on local staff as well as local partner organizations in order to ensure our work is
culturally sensitive, sustainable and well-grounded in the context.

For more information, visit ​www.sfcg.org​ and​ h

​ ttps://www.facebook.com/sfcg.lebanon​.

Position Summary
Search seeks a professional, motivated, creative and well-organised Project Manager. This position holder will
lead and coordinate various activities and a team, under one of Search’s flagship projects. S/he will ensure that
assigned project activities are properly implemented and Search methodologies are effectively employed across
activities. S/he will supervise a Project Officer and other staff that may be assigned to them. S/he will ensure a
positive and productive team spirit and with the Team Leader and Programme Director, ensure that the staff
under her/his supervision are qualified and meet the expectations of the organisation.

The position holder will be responsible for designing Search’s activities and implementation approach in such a
way that it creates lasting change towards peace, social cohesion, mutual understanding, and contributes to
changing attitudes towards violence and conflicts and challenges stereotypes. The Project Manager will ensure
the quality and relevance of existing project activities and will design new high-quality and relevant activities
that respond to the context. The Project Manager will also be involved in supporting studies, evaluations and
documenting success stories that measure the change triggered by Search’s activities. In close collaboration
with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning staff, s/he will support the monitoring and evaluation activities
related to the project.

The Project Manager is expected to support the Team Leader and Programme Director planning and facilitating
team retreats, reflection meetings, and capacity building for the project team members.

The Project Manager must ensure that activities are well planned and implemented in a manner that complies
with Search’s start-up and close-out protocols and financial health of the project is ensured through regular cost
works plans and budget versus actual analyses. The project manager must also ensure quality narrative
reporting of project activities.

Key Responsibilities
1. ​ Activity Design and Implementation
● Design the project’s activities, building on Common Ground Approach, Community Dialogue Approach,
Enduring Change Package and other methodologies and tools used in Search;
● Ensure the quality, effectiveness and ultimately the impact of Search’s ongoing project activities;
● Analyse conflict, stabilisation and social cohesion dynamics in target communities and ensure activity
design responds to and is informed by these;
● Design new activities that meet the purpose of the project, as well as fit with Search-Lebanon’s strategy;
● Ensure Search’s project activities are inclusive, and conflict and gender sensitive;
● Adapt activity design to digital and virtual methods to ensure project continuity in times of movement
restrictions due to pandemics, tensions or other factors;
● Keep abreast of Search-worldwide peacebuilding work, findings from evaluation of other countries’
projects, including lessons learnt and best practices, and use the findings to enrich project activity
design;
● Regularly monitor the quality, resonance, reach, relevance of project activities by organising reflection
and learning meetings (in close collaboration with the DMEL team);
● Closely collaborate with the DMEL team to ensure a monitoring system and monitoring and evaluation
plan and system for the project;
● Participate in the design of new programs and projects to ensure that your learning from ongoing
activities informs the design of new projects.
● Participate in project launch, mid-term reviews and close-out workshop; and
● Support the strategy and mission of Search in Lebanon, the region, and globally.

2. ​Project Planning and Reporting

● Plan the work of the project team, including capacity building of the team, partners and target
participants;
● Ensure activities are delivered on time and with high quality;
● Ensure activities are documented by relevant staff;
● Develop and follow project’s monthly work-plans that derive from the annual workplans;
● Develop and regularly update the project’s annual work-plan;
● Ensure that costed workplans for the project are developed and regularly updated;
● Produce activity and project reports that are drafted in a results-based manner, ensuring high quality,
consistency and completeness;
 ● Produce at least one well written success story from the project per quarter; and
● Take the lead in coordinating with finance teams to ensure BvA meetings are done.

3. ​ Team Management and Supervision

● Lead the hiring process for consultants, staff (temporary and full time) when needed, to ensure human
resources meet the needs of the project;
● Supervise, guide, evaluate the team members (when hired), ensuring a high team spirit and excellent
atmosphere
● Set objectives and performance plans with your team and regularly evaluate staff performance in a
collaborative and inclusive manner, providing regular and honest feedback;
● Provide technical leadership and oversight to project staff;
● Ensure the welfare of volunteers, champions, and other affiliates of the project is taken care of in line
with agreements set with them;
● Lead by example in your team in terms of compliance with Search policies, that include but not limited
to Code of Conduct, Partnership Policy, Child Protection Policy, Conflict of Interest Policy, among
others;
● Ensure team issues and grievances are resolved in a collaborative manner; and
● Available to provide cover for other Project Managers or senior roles on an interim basis.

4. ​ Relationship with Stakeholders

● Maintain a network of participants, stakeholders and influencers at the local and national and level and
a contact database relevant to the project;
● Manage the partnership agreements with champions, project partners, volunteers etc. Keeping track of
contracts and their end dates, ensuring timely renewal of agreements and keeping track of support
provided to each partner;
● Develop and maintain proactive, positive and professional relationships with consortium partners, civil
society organisations, international organisations, UN agencies, media outlets, ministries, local
authorities and local communities;
● Build connections between local community peacebuilding activities to ensure project activities are
locally driven;
● Ensure Search has a key role in reinforcing partner’s capacity to deliver appropriate services (this can be
removed as much has been mentioned about capacity building).
As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties
that are broadly in line with the above key duties.

Qualifications

Education
● Bachelor’ degree in Peace and Conflict Studies, Development, Political Science, International Affairs,
Social Sciences or other relevant field (Master’s Degree preferred);
● Additional education or training in conflict management, media for peacebuilding, communication for
social change would be a strong asset;
Experience:
Essential
● At least 5 in development, peacebuilding or humanitarian work;
● At least 3 years’ experience should be at a coordinator or managerial level;
● Significant experience designing and conducting project activities;
● Experience with use of project management tools such as Gannt charts, logical frameworks matrices,
work breakdown structure, critical path analysis among others;
● Experience in designing, planning and facilitating community dialogues, round tables, town hall
meetings etc, in-person and virtually (online);
● Track record in delivering effective quality project activities.
● Experience working with local Lebanese and refugee communities.
● Understanding of strategic communications and the role of media and communications for
peacebuilding.

​Desirable:
● Experience working in a conflict resolution setting
● Experience working in a non-profit or similar environment
● Experience of partnership building, with experience of influencing stakeholders and establishing and
maintaining strong partnerships;
● An excellent planner with deep knowledge and experience of project management tools and processes
(project planning, workplans, budget planning, etc.)
● Organisational skills and attention to detail;
● Excellent use of Excel, excellent writing and analytical skills
● Well organised, dynamic and creative
● Excellent comprehension of the principles of conflict, conflict transformation and the role of media in
peacebuilding
● A team leader, with a strong capacity to motivate oneself and others and build a team spirit;
● Ability to work under pressure and in challenging environments
● Flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances
● Willingness to travel regularly to Search’s field offices
● Proficiency in written and spoken English and Arabic.

​Other Relevant Requirements

● Understand opportunities in key Lebanon communities and context and requirements for
peacebuilding interventions;
● Written and verbal communications skills including the ability to synthesize complicated policy issues
into digestible and implementable project activities;
● Ability to work effectively in a team environment and strong interpersonal skills;
● Commitment to Search’s aims and a clear understanding of the links between policy, lobbying,
campaigning and social cohesion and peacebuilding work and of how policy change can be achieved
through effective advocacy;
● Ability to responding flexibly to opportunities and requests sometime with little notice;
● Ability to manage competing priorities in a rapidly changing environment;
● Demonstrate capacity to adapt to a multi-cultural context, and tolerance and respect to issues related
to gender, religion, race and nationality;
● Treats all people fairly without favouritism and solves problems in collaborative ways

To apply, interested candidates should send the following items ​ to our employment portal here​: